Dell may not be the number one PC manufacturer anymore, but it still buys a lot of displays every year for its laptops and desktop PCs. Price fixing of those displays is obviously going to cost Dell a significant amount of cash, and it looks as though several LCD manufacturers may have been doing just that for many years.

On Friday last week Dell filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court accusing Epson, Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba, and HannStar of price fixing back as far as 1996.

David Frink, spokesman for Dell said:

We’re seeking to recover money collected for LCD panels that were purchased at artificially inflated prices, set through what we believe was an unlawful collaboration.

This isn’t the first time such accusations have been made against LCD manufacturers. LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa, all admitted to price fixing in 2008 after an investigation was carried out by the U.S. Justice Department. Dell’s lawsuit names Sharp, which could end up with more serious consequences if found guilty due to it being the second time it has carried out such illegal practices.

This looks to be a completely separate case to that brought by the Justice Department in 2006. The first question you have to ask is, what is Sharp doing? Having already faced $120 million in fines in 2008 it goes ahead and repeats the price fixing fraud again. That is, of course, if this Dell case turns out to be correct, and price fixing has occurred again.

Dell may get a significant payout from these companies if it wins. The claims go back as far as 1996, which is some 14 years of potential over payments. I doubt consumers who bought Dell displays will ever get anything back, though. Dell would of course argue it was its profits that were hit, and not consumers paying more for the displays.